When about to enter the hut say--
"[Hearken], O Hearts of Wild Doves,
Cut we the Rod of Invitation,
This hut is named the Magic Prince,
This tube is named Prince Distraction,
Distraught (be ye) by day, distraught by night,
Distraught (with longing) to assemble in King Solomon's Hall,
Cluck, cluck! souls of Queen Kapor," etc. (as before). [259]
When you have just entered, and before you seat yourself, say--
"Sift, sift the rice-ends,
Sift them over a rush-work rice-bag," etc. (as before).
Put your lips to the decoy-tube, and sound the call, saying--
"Cut the mengkudu stem;
Cut it (through) and thrust it downwards," etc. (as before).
(or else some longer version, such as one of those given in the
Appendix). When the wild pigeon have arrived and have entered the
enclosure or "Palace-yard," wait till they are in a good position,
and then push out one of the rods with the fine noose at the end,
slip the noose over the bird's neck, and drag it into the house,
saying as you do so--
"Wak-wak [stands for] a heron on the kitchen shelf,
Covered over with the top of a cocoa-nut shell,
Do you move aside, Sir Bachelor, Master of the Ceremonies,
I wish to ensnare the necks of the race of wild doves."
Now that you understand the process of decoying pigeon with a
pigeon-call, I must explain something of the curious nomenclature used
by the wizard; for during the ceremony you must never call a spade a
spade. In the first place, the hut must not on any account be mentioned
as such: it is to be called the Magic Prince--why so called, it is hard
to say, but most likely the name is used in allusion to the wizard who
is concealed inside it. The name given to the calling-tube itself is
more appropriate, as it is called "Prince Distraction" (Raja Gila),
this name of course being an allusion to the extraordinary fascination
which it evidently exercises on the pigeon. Then the decoy (or rather,
perhaps, the rod to which it is linked) is called Putri Pemonggo',
or the Squatting Princess. Next to these come three Princesses which
prove to be merely the representatives of three important species of
wild pigeon. Their names, though variously given, are perhaps most
commonly known as Princess "Kapor," Princess "Sarap," and Princess
"Puding."
Finally, even the rod used for ensnaring the pigeon has its own
special name, Si Raja Nyila (Prince Invitation).
"King Solomon's necklaces" and armlets are of course the nooses with
which they are to be snared, and which will catch them either by the
neck or by the leg.
The Princesses are invited to enter a gorgeous palace:--
"Come down, pigeons, in your myriads,
And perch upon the 'Ivory Hall,'
(That is) carpeted with silver, and railed with amalgam,
(Come down) to the dishes of Her Highness Princess Lebar Nyiru
(Broad-sieve)." [260]
The "dishes of Her Highness Princess Broad-sieve" cleverly suggest
an abundance of provender such as is likely to appeal to a hungry bird!
In another version the three Princesses are invited to enter the
"Palace Tower" called "Fatimah Passes" (Mahaligei Fatimah Lalu).
Moreover those who issue the invitation are no respecters of persons:--
"Let those which are near, arrive the first,
Let those which are far off be sent for,
Let those which have eggs, leave their eggs,
Those which have young, leave their young,
Those which are blind, be led by others,
Those which have broken limbs, come on crutches;
Come and assemble in King Solomon's Audience-Chamber." [261]
And a similar passage in another charm says--
"Let those which are near, arrive the first,
Let those which are far off be sent for,
Cluck! cluck! souls of the children of forest doves,
Come ye down and assemble together
In the fold of God and King Solomon."
If blandishments fail, however, there is to be no doubt about the
punishments in store for their wilful Highnesses: thus, a little later,
we find the alternative, a thoroughgoing imprecation calculated to
"convince" the most headstrong of birds:--
"I call you, I fetch you down,
If you come not down you shall be eaten by the Bear-cat,
You shall be choked to death with your own feathers,
You shall be choked to death with a bone in your throat.
If you perch on a creeper you shall be entangled by it,
If you settle on a leaf you shall be bitten by the 'leaf snake,'
Come you down quickly to God's fold and King Solomon's."
And an imprecation of similar import says--
"[If you do not come down, the Bear-cat shall eat you],
If you perch on a bough, you shall slip off it,
If you perch on a creeper, you shall slide off it,
If you perch upon a leafless stump, the stump shall fall;
If you settle on the ground, the ground-snake shall bite you,
If you soar up to heaven, the eagle shall swoop upon you."
(b) Earth
1. BUILDING CEREMONIES AND CHARMS
The first operation in building is the selection of the site. This
is determined by an elaborate code of rules which make the choice
depend--firstly, upon the nature of the soil with respect to colour,
taste, and smell; secondly, upon the formation of its surface; and,
thirdly, upon its aspect:--
"The best soil, whether for a house, village, orchard, or town, is a
greenish yellow, fragrant-scented, tart-tasting loam: such a soil will
ensure abundance of gold and silver unto the third generation. [262]
"The best site, whether for a house, village, orchard, or town,
is level. [263]
"The best aspect (of the surface) is that of land which is low upon
the north side and high upon the south side: such a site will bring
absolute peacefulness." [264]
When you have found a site complying with more or less favourable
conditions, in accordance with the code, you must next clear the ground
of forest or undergrowth, lay down four sticks to form a rectangle in
the centre thereof, and call upon the name of the lords of that spot
(i.e. the presiding local deities or spirits). Now dig up the soil
(enclosed by the four sticks), and taking a clod in your hand, call
upon the lords of that spot as follows:--
"Ho, children of Mentri [265] Guru,
Who dwell in the Four Corners of the World,
I crave this plot as a boon."
(Here mention the purpose to which you wish to put it.)
"If it is good, show me a good omen,
If it is bad, show me a bad omen." [266]
Wrap the clod up in white cloth, and after fumigating it with incense,
place it at night beneath your pillow, and when you retire to rest
repeat the last two lines of the above charm as before and go to
sleep. If your dream is good proceed with, if bad desist from, your
operations. Supposing your dream to be "good," you must (approximately)
clear the site of the main building and peg out the four corners with
dead sticks; then take a dead branch and heap it up lightly with earth
(in the centre of the site?); set fire to it, and when the whole heap
has been reduced to ashes, sweep it all up together and cover it over
while you repeat the charm (which differs but little from that given
above). Next morning uncover it early in the morning and God will
show you the good and the bad.
The site being finally selected, you must proceed to choose a day for
erecting the central house-post, by consulting first the schedule of
lucky and unlucky months, and next the schedule of lucky and unlucky
days of the week. [267]
[The best time of day for the operation to take place is said to be
always seven o'clock in the morning. Hence there seems to be no need
to consult a schedule to discover it, though some magicians may do so.]
The propitious moment having been at last ascertained, the erection
of the centre-post will be proceeded with. First, the hole for its
reception must be dug (the operation being accompanied by the recital
of a charm) and the post erected, the greatest precautions being taken
to prevent the shadow of any of the workers from falling either upon
the post itself or upon the hole dug to receive it, sickness and
trouble being otherwise sure to follow. [268]
[The account in the Appendix, of which the above is a resume, omits
to describe the sacrifice which has to be made before the erection of
the centre-post, which has therefore been drawn from the instructions
of other magicians.]
"When the hole has been dug and before the centre-post is actually
erected, some sort of sacrifice or offering has to be made. First
you take a little brazilwood (kayu sepang), a little ebony-wood
(kayu arang), a little assafoetida (inggu), and a little scrap-iron
(tahi besi), and deposit them in the hole which you have dug. Then
take a fowl, [269] a goat, or a buffalo [according to the ascertained
or reputed malignity of the locally presiding earth-demon (puaka)],
and cut its throat according to Muhammadan custom, spilling its blood
into the hole. Then cut off its head and feet, and deposit them within
the hole to serve as a foundation for the centre-post to rest upon
(buat lapik tiang s'ri). Put a ring on your little finger out of
compliment to the earth-spirit (akan membujok jembalang itu), repeat
the charm [270] and erect the post." [271]
Another form of the above ceremony was described to me by a magician
as follows:--
"Deposit in the hole a little scrap-iron and tin-ore, a candle nut
(buah k'ras or buah gorek), a broken hatchet head (b'liong patah),
and a cent (in copper). Wait till everybody else has returned home,
and, standing close to the hole, pick up three clods (kepal) of
earth, hold them (genggam) over the incense, turn 'right-about-face'
and repeat the charm. [272] Then take the three clods home (without
once turning round to look behind you till you reach home), place
them under your sleeping pillow and wait till nightfall, when you may
have either a good or a bad dream. If the first night's dream be bad,
throw away one of the clods and dream again. If the second night's
dream be bad, repeat the process, and whenever you get a good dream
deposit the clod or clods under the butt-end of the centre-post to
serve as a foundation."
A magician gave me this specimen of a charm used at this ceremony
(of erecting the centre-post):--
"Ho, Raja Guru, Maharaja Guru,
You are the sons of Batara Guru.
I know the origin from which you spring,
From the Flashing of Lightning's spurs;
I know the origin from which you spring,
From the Brightening of Daybreak.
Ho, Spectre of the Earth, Brains of the Earth, Demon of the Earth,
Retire ye hence to the depths of the Ocean,
To the peace of the primeval forest.
Betwixt you and me
Division was made by Adam."
Another rule of importance in house-building is that which regulates
the length of the threshold, as to which the instructions are as
follows:--
"Measure off (on a piece of string) the stretch (fathom) of the arms
of her who is to be mistress of the proposed house. Fold this string
in three and cut off one third. Take the remainder, fold it in eight
and cut off seven-eighths. Take the remaining eighth, see how many
times it is contained in the length of the threshold, and check off
the number (of these measurements) against the "category" (bilangan)
of the "eight beasts" [273] (benatang yang d'lapan). This category
runs as follows:--(1) The dragon (naga); (2) the dairy-cow (sapi); (3)
the lion (singa); (4) the dog (anjing); (5) the draught-cow (lembu);
(6) the ass (kaldei); (7) the elephant (gajah), and (8) the crow
(gagak), all of which have certain ominous significations. If the
last measurement coincides with one of the unlucky beasts in the
category, such as the crow (which signifies the death of the master
of the house), the threshold is cut shorter to make it fit in with
one that is more auspicious." [274]
The names of the "eight beasts," coupled with the events which they
are supposed to foreshadow, are often commemorated in rhyming stanzas.
Here is a specimen:--
I.--The Dragon (naga).
"A dragon of bulk, a monster dragon,
Is this dragon that turns round month by month. [275]
Wherever you go you will be safe from stumbling-blocks,
And all who meet you will be your friends."
II.--The Dairy-Cow (sapi).
"There is the smoke of a fire in the forest,
Where Inche `Ali is burning lime;
They were milking the young dairy-cow,
And in the midst of the milking it sprawled and fell down dead."
III.--The Lion (singa).
"A lion of courage, a lion of valour,
Is the lion gambolling at the end of the Point.
The luck of this house will be lasting,
Bringing you prosperity from year to year."
IV.--The Dog (anjing).
"The wild dog, the jackal,
Barks at the deer from night to night;
Whatever you do will be a stumbling-block;
In this house men will stab one another."
V.--The Draught-Cow (lembu).
"The big cow from the middle of the clearing
Has gone to the Deep Forest to calve there.
Great good luck will be your portion.
Never will you cease to be prosperous."
VI.--The Ass (kaldei).
"The ass within the Fort
Carries grass from morn to eve;
Whatever you pray for will not be granted,
Though big your capital, the half will be lost."
VII.--The Elephant (gajah).
"The big riding elephant of the Sultan
Has its tusks covered with amalgam.
Good luck is your portion,
No harm or blemish will you suffer."
VIII.--The Crow (gagak).
"A black crow soaring by night
Has perched on the house of the great Magic Prince;
Great indeed is the calamity which has happened:
Within the house its master lies dead."
In close connection with the ceremonies for the selection of individual
house sites are the forms by which the princes of Malay tradition
selected sites for the towns which they founded. The following extract
will perhaps convey some idea of their character:--
"One day Raja Marong Maha Podisat went into his outer audience hall,
where all his ministers, warriors, and officers were in attendance,
and commanded the four Mantris to equip an expedition with all the
necessary officers and armed men, and with horses and elephants, arms
and accoutrements. The four Mantris did as they were ordered, and when
all was ready they informed the Raja. The latter waited for a lucky
day and an auspicious moment, and then desired his second son to set
out. The Prince took leave after saluting his father and mother, and
all the ministers, officers, and warriors who followed him performed
obeisance before the Raja. They then set out in search of a place of
settlement, directing their course between south and east, intending
to select a place with good soil, and there to build a town with fort,
moat, palace, and balei. [276] They amused themselves in every forest,
wood, and thicket through which they passed, crossing numbers of
hills and mountains, and stopping here and there to hunt wild beasts,
or to fish if they happened to fall in with a pool or lake.
"After they had pursued their quest for some time they came to the
tributary of a large river which flowed down to the sea. Farther
on they came to a large sheet of water, in the midst of which were
four islands. The Prince was much pleased with the appearance of the
islands, and straightway took a silver arrow and fitted it to his
bow named Indra Sakti, and said: 'O arrow of the bow Indra Sakti,
fall thou on good soil in this group of islands; wherever thou mayest
chance to fall, there will I make a palace in which to live.' He then
drew his bow and discharged the arrow, which flew upwards with the
rapidity of lightning, and with a humming sound like that made by a
beetle as it flies round a flower, and went out of sight. Presently
it came in sight again, and fell upon one of the islands, which on
that account was called Pulau Indra Sakti. On that spot was erected a
town with fort, palace, and balei, and all the people who were living
scattered about in the vicinity were collected together and set to
work on the various buildings." [277]
Even in the making of roads through the forest it would appear that
sacrificial ceremonies are not invariably neglected. On one occasion
I came upon a party of Malays in the Labu jungle who were engaged in
making a bridle-track for the Selangor Government. A small bamboo
censer, on which incense had been burning, had been erected in the
middle of the trace; and I was informed that the necessary rites
(for exorcising the demons from the trace) had just been successfully
concluded.
2. BEASTS AND BEAST CHARMS
All wild animals, more especially the larger and more dangerous
species, are credited in Malay folklore with human or (occasionally)
superhuman powers.
In the pages which now follow I shall deal with the folklore which
refers to the more important animals, first pointing out their
anthropomorphic traits, then detailing some of the more important
traditions about them, and finally, where possible, describing the
methods of hunting them.
The Elephant
Of the Elephant we read:--
"The superstitious dread entertained by Malays for the larger animals
is the result of ideas regarding them which have been inherited
from the primitive tribes of Eastern Asia. Muhammadanism has not
been able to stamp out the deep-rooted feelings which prompted the
savage to invest the wild beasts which he dreaded with the character
of malignant deities. The tiger, elephant, and rhinoceros [278] were
not mere brutes to be attacked and destroyed. The immense advantages
which their strength and bulk gave them over the feebly-armed savage
of the most primitive tribes naturally suggested the possession of
supernatural powers; and propitiation, not force, was the system by
which it was hoped to repel them. The Malay addresses the tiger as
Datoh (grandfather), and believes that many tigers are inhabited
by human souls. Though he reduces the elephant to subjection, and
uses him as a beast of burden, it is universally believed that the
observance of particular ceremonies, and the repetition of prescribed
formulas, are necessary before wild elephants can be entrapped and
tamed. Some of these spells and charms (mantra) are supposed to have
extraordinary potency, and I have in my possession a curious collection
of them, regarding which, it was told me seriously by a Malay, that in
consequence of their being read aloud in his house three times all the
hens stopped laying! The spells in this collection are nearly all in
the Siamese language, and there is reason to believe that the modern
Malays owe most of their ideas on the subject of taming and driving
elephants to the Siamese. Those, however, who had no idea of making
use of the elephant, but who feared him as an enemy, were doubtless the
first to devise the idea of influencing him by invocations. This idea
is inherited, both by Malays and Siamese, from common ancestry." [279]
To the above evidence (which was collected by Sir W. E. Maxwell no
doubt mainly in Perak) I would add that at Labu, in Selangor, I heard
on more than one occasion a story in which the elephant-folk were
described as possessing, on the borders of Siam, a city of their own,
where they live in houses like human beings, and wear their natural
human shape. This story, which was first told me by Ungku Said Kechil
of Jelebu, was taken down by me at the time, and ran as follows:--
"A Malay named Laboh went out one day to his rice-field and found
that elephants had been destroying his rice.
"He therefore planted caltrops of a cubit and a half in length in
the tracks of the offenders. That night an elephant was wounded in
the foot by one of the caltrops, and went off bellowing with pain.
"Day broke and Laboh set off on the track of the wounded elephant,
but lost his way, and after three days and nights journeying, found
himself on the borders of a new and strange country. Presently he
encountered an old man, to whom he remarked 'Hullo, grandfather,
your country is extraordinarily quiet!' The old man replied,
'Yes, for all noise is forbidden, because the king's daughter is
ill.' 'What is the matter with her?' asked Si Laboh. The old man
replied that she had trodden upon a caltrop. Si Laboh then asked,
'May I see if I can do anything to help her?'
"The old man then went and reported the matter to the king, who
ordered Si Laboh to be brought into his presence.
"[Now the country which Si Laboh had reached was a fine open country
on the borders of Siam. It is called 'Pak Henang,' and its only
inhabitants are the elephant-people who live there in human guise. And
whoever trespasses over the boundaries of that country turns into
an elephant.]
"Then Si Laboh saw that the king's daughter, whose name was Princess
Rimbut, was suffering from one of the caltrops which he himself
had planted. He therefore extracted it from her foot, so that she
recovered, and the king, in order to reward Si Laboh, gave him the
Princess in marriage.
"Now when they had been married a long time, and had got two children,
Si Laboh endeavoured to persuade his wife to accompany him on a visit
to his own country. To this the Princess replied 'Yes; but if I go
you must promise never to add to the dish any young tree-shoots at
meal-time.' [280]
"On this they started, and at the end of the first day's journey
they halted and sat down to eat. But Si Laboh had forgotten the
injunctions of his wife, and put young tree-shoots into the dish with
his rice. Then his wife protested and said, 'Did I not tell you not
to put young tree-shoots into your food?' But Si Laboh was obstinate,
and merely replied, 'What do I care?' so that his wife was turned
back into an elephant and ran off into the jungle. Then Si Laboh wept
and followed her, but she refused to return as she had now become
an elephant. Yet he followed her for a whole day, but she would not
return to him, and he then returned homewards with his children.
"This is all that is known about the origin of elephants who are
human beings."
A Malay charm which was given me (at Labu) to serve as a protection
against elephants (pendinding gajah) gives the actual name of the
Elephant King--
"O Grandfather Moyang Kaban,
Destroy not your own grandchildren."
Ghost elephants (gajah kramat) are not uncommon. They are popularly
believed to be harmless, but invulnerable, and are generally supposed
to exhibit some outward and visible sign of their sanctity, such as
a stunted tusk or a shrunken foot. They are the tutelary genii of
certain localities, and when they are killed the good fortune of the
neighbourhood is supposed to depart too. Certain it is, that when
one of these ghost elephants was shot at Klang a year or two ago,
it did not succumb until some fifty or sixty rifle-bullets had been
poured into it, and its death was followed by a fall in the local
value of coffee and coffee land, from which the district took long
to recover. [281]
A ghost elephant is very often thought to be the guardian spirit
of some particular shrine--an idea that is common throughout the
Peninsula.
Other general ideas about the elephant are as follows:--
"Elephants are said to be very frightened if they see a tree stump that
has been felled at a great height from the ground, as some trees which
have high spreading buttresses are cut, because they think that giants
must have felled it, and as ordinary-sized men are more than a match
for them they are in great dread of being caught by creatures many
times more powerful than their masters. Some of the larger insects of
the grasshopper kind are supposed to be objects of terror to elephants,
while the particularly harmless little pangolin (Manis pentadactyla)
is thought to be able to kill one of these huge beasts by biting its
foot. The pangolin, by the bye, is quite toothless. Another method in
which the pangolin attacks and kills elephants is by coiling itself
tightly around the end of the elephant's trunk, and so suffocating
it. This idea is also believed in by the Singhalese, according to
Mr. W. T. Hornaday's Two Years in the Jungle." [282]
The foregoing passage refers to Perak, but similar ideas are common in
Selangor, and they occur no doubt, with local variations, in every
one of the Malay States. Selangor Malays tell of the scaring of
elephants by the process of drawing the slender stem of the bamboo
down to the ground and cutting off the top of it, when it springs
back to its place.
The story of the "pangolin" is also told in Selangor with additional
details. Thus it is said that the "Jawi-jawi" tree (a kind of banyan)
is always avoided by elephants because it was once licked by the
armadillo. The latter, after licking it, went his way, and "the
elephant coming up was greatly taken aback by the offensive odour,
and swore that he would never go near the tree again. He kept his
oath, and his example has been followed by his descendants, so that
to this day the 'Jawi-jawi' is the one tree in the forest which the
elephant is afraid to approach." [283]
The following directions for hunting the elephant were given me by
Lebai Jamal, a famous elephant hunter of Lingging, near the Sungei
Ujong border:--
"When you first meet with the spoor of elephant or rhinoceros, observe
whether the foot-hole contains any dead wood, (then) take the twig of
dead wood, together with a ball of earth as big as a maize-cob taken
from the same foot-hole (if there is only one of you, one ball will
do, if there are three of you, three balls will be wanted, if seven,
seven balls, but not more). Then roll up your ball of earth and the
twig together in a tree-leaf, breathe upon it, and recite the charm
(for blinding the elephant's eyes), the purport of which is that if
the quarry sees, its eyesight shall be destroyed, and if it looks,
its eyesight shall be dimmed, by the help of God, the prophet, and
the medicine-man, who taught the charm.
"Now slip your ball of earth into your waistband just over the navel,
and destroy the scent of your body and your gun. To do this, take
a bunch of certain leaves [284] (daun sa-cherek), together with
stem-leaves of the betel-vine (kerapak sirih), leaves of the wild
camphor (chapa), and leaves of the club-gourd (labu ayer puteh),
break their midribs with your left hand, shut your eyes, and say
'As these tree leaves smell, so may my body (and gun) be scented.'
"When the animal is dead, beat it with an end of black cloth, repeating
the charm for driving away the 'mischief' (badi) from the carcase,
which charm runs as follows:--
"Badiyu, Mother of Mischief, Badi Panji, Blind Mother,
I know the origin from which you sprang, [285]
Three drops of Adam's blood were the origin from which you sprang,
Mischief of Earth, return to Earth,
Mischief of Ant-heap, return to Ant-heap,
Mischief of Elephant, return to Elephant, [286]
Mischief of Wood, return to Wood,
Mischief of Water, return to Water,
Mischief of Stone, return to Stone
And injure not my person.
By the virtue of my Teacher,
You may not injure the children of the race of Man."
The perquisites of the Pawang (magician) are to be "a little black
cloth and a little white cloth," and the only special taboo mentioned
by Lebai Jamal was "on no account to let the naked skin rub against
the skin of the slain animal."
Before leaving the subject of elephants, I may add that Raja Ja`far
(of Beranang in Selangor) told me that Lebai Jamal, when charged by an
elephant or rhinoceros, would draw upon the ground with his finger a
line which the infuriated animal was never able to cross. This line,
he said, was called the Baris Laksamana, or the "Admiral's Line,"
and the knowledge of how to draw it was naturally looked upon as a
great acquisition.
The Tiger
"The Tiger is sometimes believed to be a man or demon in the form
of a wild beast, and to the numerous aboriginal superstitions which
attach to this dreaded animal Muhammadanism has added the notion which
connects the Tiger with the Khalif Ali. One of Ali's titles throughout
the Moslem world is 'the Victorious Lion of the Lord,' and in Asiatic
countries, where the lion is unknown, the tiger generally takes the
place of the 'king of beasts.'" [287]
But the anthropomorphic ideas of the Malays about the Tiger go yet
farther than this. Far away in the jungle (as I have several times
been told in Selangor) the tiger-folk (no less than the elephants)
have a town of their own, where they live in houses, and act in every
respect like human beings. In the town referred to their house-posts
are made of the heart of the Tree-nettle (t'ras jelatang), and their
roofs thatched with human hair--one informant added that men's bones
were their only rafters, and men's skins their house walls--and there
they live quietly enough until one of their periodical attacks of
fierceness (mengganas) comes on and causes them to break bounds and
range the forest for their chosen prey.
There are several of these tiger-villages or "enclosures" in the
Peninsula, the chief of them being Gunong Ledang (the Mount Ophir
of Malacca), just as Pasummah is the chief of such localities in
Sumatra. [288] So too, from Perak, Sir W. E. Maxwell writes in 1881:--
"A mischievous tiger is said sometimes to have broken loose from its
pen or fold (pechah kandang). This is in allusion to an extraordinary
belief that, in parts of the Peninsula, there are regular enclosures
where tigers possessed by human souls live in association. During
the day they roam where they please, but return to the kandang at
night." [289]
Various fables ascribe to the tiger a human origin. One of these,
taken down by me word for word from a Selangor Malay, is intended to
account for the tiger's stripes. The gist of it ran as follows:--
"An old man picked up a boy in the jungle with a white skin, green
eyes, and very long nails. Taking the boy home his rescuer named him
Muhammad Yatim (i.e. 'Muhammad the fatherless'), and when he grew
up sent him to school, where he behaved with great cruelty to his
schoolfellows, and was therefore soundly beaten by his master ('Toh
Saih Panjang Janggut, i.e. 'Toh Saih Long-beard), who used a stick made
of a kind of wood called los [290] to effect the chastisement. At the
first cut the boy leapt as far as the doorway; at the second he leapt
to the ground, at the third he bounded into the grass, at the fourth
he uttered a growl, and at the fifth his tail fell down behind him
and he went upon all fours, whereat his master (improvising a name to
curse him by), exclaimed, 'This is of a truth God's tiger! (Harimau
Allah). Go you,' he added, addressing the tiger, 'to the place where
you will catch your prey--the borderland between the primeval forest
and the secondary forest-growth, and that between the secondary
forest-growth and the plain--catch there whomsoever you will, but
see that you catch only the headless. Alter no jot of what I say,
or you shall be consumed by the Iron of the Regalia, and crushed by
the sanctity of the thirty divisions of the Koran.'" Hence the tiger
is to this day compelled to "ask for" his prey, and uses divination
(bertenung), as all men know, for the purpose of discovering whether
his petition has yet been granted.
Hence, too, he carries on his hide to this very day the mark of the
stripes with which he was beaten at school.
The method of divination said to be practised by the tiger is as
follows: The tiger lies down and gazes (bertenung) at leaves which he
takes between his paws, and whenever he sees the outline of a leaf
take the shape of one of his intended victims, without the head, he
knows it to be the sign that that victim has been "granted" to him,
in accordance with the very terms of his master's curse.
I once asked (at Labu) how it was known that the tiger used divination,
and was told this story of a man who had seen it:--
"A certain Malay had been working, together with his newly-married
wife, in the rice-fields at Labu, and on his stepping aside at
noon into the cool of the forest, he saw a tiger lying down among
the underwood apparently gazing at something between its paws. By
creeping stealthily nearer he was able at length to discern the object
at which the tiger was gazing, and it proved to be, to his intense
horror, a leaf which presented the lineaments of his wife, lacking
only the head. Hurrying back to the rice-field he at once warned the
neighbours of what he had seen, and implored them to set his wife in
their midst and escort her homeward. To this they consented, but yet,
in spite of every precaution, the tiger broke through the midst of
them and killed the woman before it could be driven off. The bereaved
husband thereupon requested them to leave him alone with the body
and depart, and when they had done so, he took the body in his arms,
and so lay down embracing it, with a dagger in either hand. Before
sunset the tiger returned to its kill, and leapt upon the corpse,
whereupon the husband stabbed it to the heart, so that the points of
the daggers met, and killed it on the spot."
The power of becoming a man- or were-tiger (as it has sometimes
been called), is supposed to be confined to one tribe of Sumatrans,
the Korinchi Malays, many of whom are to be met with in the Malay
Native States. This belief is very strongly held, and on one occasion,
when I asked some Malays at Jugra how it could be proved that the man
really became a tiger, they told me the case of a man some of whose
teeth were plated with gold, and who had been accidentally killed
in the tiger stage, when the same gold plating was discovered in the
tiger's mouth. [291]
Of the strength of the Malay belief in were-tigers Mr. Clifford
writes:--
"The existence of the Malayan Loup Garou to the native mind is a fact,
and not a mere belief. The Malay knows that it is true. Evidence, if
it be needed, may be had in plenty; the evidence, too, of sober-minded
men, whose words in a Court of Justice would bring conviction to the
mind of the most obstinate jurymen, and be more than sufficient to
hang the most innocent of prisoners. The Malays know well how Haji
`Abdallah, the native of the little state of Korinchi in Sumatra, was
caught naked in a tiger trap, and thereafter purchased his liberty
at the price of the buffaloes he had slain while he marauded in the
likeness of a beast. They know of the countless Korinchi men who have
vomited feathers, after feasting upon fowls, when for the nonce they
had assumed the forms of tigers; and of those other men of the same
race who have left their garments and their trading packs in thickets
whence presently a tiger has emerged. All these things the Malays know
have happened, and are happening to-day, in the land in which they
live, and with these plain evidences before their eyes, the empty
assurances of the enlightened European that Were-Tigers do not, and
never did exist, excite derision not unmingled with contempt." [292]
Writing on the same theme, Sir Frank Swettenham says:--
"Another article of almost universal belief is that the people of a
small State in Sumatra called Korinchi have the power of assuming at
will the form of a tiger, and in that disguise they wreak vengeance
on those they wish to injure. Not every Korinchi man can do this,
but still the gift of this strange power of metamorphosis is pretty
well confined to the people of the small Sumatran State. At night
when respectable members of society should be in bed, the Korinchi man
slips down from his hut, and, assuming the form of a tiger, goes about
'seeking whom he may devour.'
"I have heard of four Korinchi men arriving in a district of Perak,
and that night a number of fowls were taken by a tiger. The strangers
left and went farther up country, and shortly after only three of
them returned and stated that a tiger had just been killed, and they
begged the local headman to bury it.
"On another occasion some Korinchi men appeared and sought hospitality
in a Malay house, and there also the fowls disappeared in the night,
and there were unmistakable traces of the visit of a tiger, but the
next day one of the visitors fell sick, and shortly after vomited
chicken-feathers.
"It is only fair to say that the Korinchi people strenuously deny
the tendencies and the power ascribed to them, but aver that they
properly belong to the inhabitants of a district called Chenaku in
the interior of the Korinchi country. Even there, however, it is only
those who are practised in the elemu sehir, the occult arts, who are
thus capable of transforming themselves into tigers, and the Korinchi
people profess themselves afraid to enter the Chenaku district." [293]
There are many stories about ghost tigers (rimau kramat), which are
generally supposed to have one foot a little smaller than the others
(kaki tengkis). During my stay in the Langat district I was shown
on more than one occasion the spoor of a ghost tiger. This happened
once near Sepang village, on a wet and clayey bridle-track, where
the unnatural smallness of one of the feet was very conspicuous. Such
tigers are considered invulnerable, but harmless to man, and are looked
upon generally as the guardian spirits of some sacred spot. One of
these sacred spots was the shrine (kramat) of 'Toh Kamarong, about
two miles north of Sepang village. This shrine, it was alleged, was
guarded by a white ghost elephant and ghost tiger, who ranged the
country round but never harmed anybody. One day, however, a Chinaman
from the neighbouring pepper plantations offered at this shrine a
piece of pork, which, however acceptable it might have been to a
Chinese saint, so incensed the orthodox guardians of this Muhammadan
shrine that one of them (the ghost tiger) fell upon the Chinaman and
slew him before he could return to his house.
By far the most celebrated of these ghost tigers, however, were the
guardians of the shrine at the foot of Jugra Hill, which were formerly
the pets of the Princess of Malacca (Tuan Putri Gunong Ledang). Local
report says that this princess left her country when it was taken
by the Portuguese, and established herself on Jugra Hill, a solitary
hill on the southern portion of the Selangor coast, which is marked
on old charts as the "False Parcelar" hill.
The legend which connects the name of this princess with Jugra Hill
was thus told [294] by Mr. G. C. Bellamy (formerly of the Selangor
Civil Service).
"Bukit Jugra (Jugra Hill) in its isolated position, and conspicuous
as it is from the sea, could scarcely escape being an object of
veneration to the uneducated Malay mind. The jungle which clothes its
summit and sides is supposed to be full of hantus (demons or ghosts),
and often when talking to Malays in my bungalow in the evening have
our discussions been interrupted by the cries of the langswayer (a
female birth-demon) in the neighbouring jungle, or the mutterings
of the bajang (a familiar spirit) as he sat on the roof-tree. But
the 'Putri' (Princess) of Gunong Ledang holds the premier position
amongst the fabulous denizens of the jungle on the hill, and it is
strange that places so far apart as Mount Ophir and Bukit Jugra should
be associated with one another in traditionary lore. The story runs
that this estimable lady, having disposed of her husband by pricking
him to death with needles, [295] decided thenceforth to live free
from the restrictions of married life. She was thus able to visit
distant lands, taking with her a cat [296] of fabulous dimensions
as her sole attendant. This cat appears to have been a most amiable
and accommodating creature, for on arriving at Jugra he carried the
Princess on his back to the top of the hill. Here the lady remained
for some time, and during her stay constructed a bathing-place for
herself. Even to this day she pays periodical visits to Jugra Hill,
and although she herself is invisible to mortal eye, her faithful
attendant, in the shape of a handsome tiger, is often to be met with as
he prowls about the place at night. He has never been known to injure
any one, and is reverently spoken of as a rimau kramat (ghost tiger)."
To the above story Mr. C. H. A. Turney (then Senior District Officer
and stationed at Jugra) added the following:--"The Princess and the stories about her and the tiger are well known, and the latter are related from mother to daughter in Langat. |
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